A PROJECT STUDY REPORT ON

BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT AND BUSINESS LAWS

By

NASEEB MK
22MBMA37

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CONTENT

Introduction

The Telecom industry in India

BSNL

Statistical Reports

BSNL products and services

Recent collaborations by BSNL

Post(hierarchy) specifically for BSNL

Competitors Analysis

BSNL SWOT Analysis

Suggestions
PESTLE analysis of the telecommunication industry.

Conclusion

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Introduction
The project is an extensive report on how the BSNL company has been able in tackling
the present tough competition and how it is co-oping up by the allegations of the quality of
its products. The reports begin with the Telecom Industry in India.
This report also contains the brief history of BSNL, Products and services,
collaborations, organizational structures and its competitors.
I Included SWOT analysis of BSNL along with Pestle analysis of the industry with some
suggestions to the company. I believe the project will help the company as a guide for the
future project implementation and other decision making.

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The Telecom industry in India
The Telecom industry in India is the second largest in the world with a subscriber base
of 1.17 bn as of July 2022. India has an overall tele-density of 85.11 %, of which, the tele-
density of the rural market, which is largely untapped, stands at 58.37% while the tele-density
of the urban market is 134.78%.
By the end of December 2021, the total number of internet subscribers increased to
829.3 mn (narrowband + broadband subscribers), out of which 37.25% of the internet
subscribers belong to the rural areas. The number of broadband subscribers has increased to
807.42 mn as of July 2022. The average monthly data consumption per wireless data
subscriber has also increased by 22,605% to 14.97 GB in December 2021 from 61.66 MB in
March 2014.
The industry’s exponential growth over the last few years is primarily driven by
affordable tariffs, wider availability, roll-out of Mobile Number Portability (MNP), expanding
3G and 4G coverage, evolving consumption patterns of subscribers, Government’s initiatives
towards bolstering India’s domestic telecom manufacturing capacity, and a conducive
regulatory environment.
The Telecom sector is the 3rd largest sector in terms of FDI inflows, contributing 6.44%
of total FDI inflow, and contributes directly to 2.2 mn employment and indirectly to 1.8 mn
jobs. Between 2014 and 2021, the FDI inflows in the Telecom sector rose by 150% to $20.72
bn from $8.32 bn during 2002-2014. 100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has now been
allowed in the Telecom sector under the automatic route.
100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has now been allowed in the Telecom sector under the
automatic route

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BSNL
The history of BSNL dates back to the British era and is the country's oldest communication
provider. It started the first telegraph line back in 1851 as part of the Postal and Telegraph
Department in the British Period (BSNLTeleServices, 2021). BSNL was incorporated in the year
2000 as an Indian telecommunications service provider owned by the Department of
Telecommunications (DoT), Ministry of Communications, GoI, headquartered in New Delhi.
BSNL offered landline services, and by 2002, it launched GSM-based mobile services popularly
known as “CellOne” across all its telecom circles in India (The Times of India, 2002).
In 2005, BSNL launched its broadband Internet services under the name “Data One” in over
200 cities in India. Furthermore, in 2009 it launched 3G mobile services across 11 cities. In
2013, BSNL launched multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) technology to provide IP VPN
services, thus providing corporate networking services (Pandey, 2004). It claimed that this
service would reduce 50% cost in comparison to the conventional leased line network. In
2018, BSNL launched a VOIP based phone service through an app under the name of “BSNL
WINGS”, offering free audio/video calling services. BSNL launched fibre-to-the-home (FTTH)
broadband service in 2020 to compete with JioFiber, Airtel and Tata Sky broadband services
(BSNL Launches New Bharat Fiber, 2020). In 2019, BSNL launched its 4G LTE services with the
plans of expanding them to all the telecom circles. BSNL introduced first in the world satellite-
based IoT network in India in a partnership with Skylo. The motive was to connect with
machines, industrial IoT devices and sensors in a single network.
As of June 2022, it is the largest provider of wireline telecommunication in the country, with
a 29.57% market share and the fourth-largest wireless service provider with 10.14% (Telecom
Regulatory Authority of India, 2022). The cumulative subscriber base of BSNL stands at 125
million as of February 2021. The revenue of BSNL dropped from 2.36 billion USD in FY19 to
2.3 billion USD in FY20 (BSNL, 2020).

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BSNL products and services
 Wire line Services
 GSM Mobile Services including 2G, 3G, 4G & Value-added Services (VAS)
 Internet and Broadband services including Fiber to the Home (FTTH)
 Wi-Fi services
 Data Center services
 Enterprise Data services such as Leased circuits, MPLS VPN etc.
 National Long-Distance services
 International Long-Distance Services
BSNL telecom network therefore, is a part of modern global network, providing access to
countries around the world for transporting information in the form of voice, data and video.
The company has a vast experience in planning, installation, network integration &
maintenance of switches & transmission networks. BSNL has a world class ISO 9000 certified
Telecom Training Institute.
The details of Services provided by BSNL as on 30.11.2021 are as under:
BSNL has modernized its network by incorporating state of the art technology with 100%
digital new technology switching network. BSNL has a customer base of 1208.35 Lakh
subscribers.

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Wire-line Services: The vast switching network for landlines comprises of 27,329 exchanges
having a capacity of 228.62 Lakh lines serving 76.48 lakh customers.
Wireless Services: BSNL has covered almost all the cities, and substantial length of National
Highways, Rail Routes and State Highways. The Cellular services of BSNL are also providing
incidental coverage to the rural areas falling enroute to National and important State
Highways. 1131.86 Lakh mobile connections are working against equipped capacity of
1142.50 lakhs. BSNL has 84,544 BTSs of 2G technology, 62,408 Node-Bs of 3G technology and
8,637 e- Node-Bs of 4G technology. The 3G mobile facility has been rolled out in 6,272 cities
/ towns.
Broadband Services: BSNL had launched its Broadband services in January 2005 using ADSL2+
technology. As on 30.11.2021, 23.06 lakh connections are working with the installed capacity
of 100.18 lakhs broadband ports. BSNL has covered 665 DHQ, 5,996 BHQ, 4,524 Cities and 1,
71,476 Villages with broadband services.

BSNL is providing Wi-Fi broadband connections. As on 30.11.2021, BSNL has 6.09 lakh Wi-Fi
unique users. In addition, BSNL is providing a host of Value-Added Services (VAS) to its
landline and mobile customers. VAS is normally a third-party service and is provided on
franchise model on revenue share basis.

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Recent collaborations by BSNL:
 BSNL and YuppTV to launch a single subscription
 BSNL and Ciena sign an MoU to prepare for 5G in India
 Eros Now partners with BSNL to offer unlimited movies and digital originals
 BSNL partners with Call2Action Communication India to launch mobile advertising
platforms

Post(hierarchy) specifically for BSNL

CMD- Chief Managing Director
DIR- Director (of various wing like finance, and other departments)
CGM- Chief General Manager (It is a on State Level) of various circles. As BSNL is pan India
organization it is divided into various telecom circles/Regions.
PGM- Principal General Manager (It is on Metro city Level Like Ahmedabad) of various
departments in each circle.
GM- General Manager
DGM -Deputy General Manager
AGM/DE- Asst General Manager/Divisional Engineer
SDE- Sub Divisional Engineer
JTO- Junior Telecom Officer
JE- Junior Engineer

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Competitors
Currently, BSNL stands at the number one position for having the highest market share
(subscriber base) in the wireline telecommunication services, whereas it has fourth in the
wireless telecommunication sector. In the wireless sector, BSNL is behind Reliance Jio, Bharti
Airtel and Vodafone-Idea (see Tables).
Reliance Jio
The services of Jio went public in September 2016, is currently India's most prominent and
world's third-largest mobile network provider, with a total customer base of 426.2 million as
of March 31, 2021 (Reliance Industries Limit, 2021). It operates only on a 4G network in the
22 telecom circles and does not offer 2G or 3G services as fellow incumbent telecom service
providers do. The company registered a 28.9% growth in data traffic in FY21, which stood at
62.5 billion GB (gigabyte). Jio introduced Jio-Fiber, a fiber-to-the-home service, on its third
anniversary in September 2019, offering a bundled set of services, ranging from television,
telephone to broadband services.
When most other telecom operators of the country are reporting losses, Jio, in the January–
March quarter of 2021, reported 47.5% growth in consolidated net profit and an 18.9%
increase in revenue y-o-y. Similarly, the data and voice traffic saw a rise of 26.7 and 17.9% y-
o-y, respectively. In his statement, Reliance Industries Chairman and Managing Director
Mukesh Ambani said.
Jio has a highly engaged 426 million customer base and remains committed to enhancing
digital experiences not only for our existing customers but for all individuals, households, and
enterprises across the country. With its path defining partnerships over the last couple of
years, Jio will continue to strive towards making India a premier digital society. (The
Statesman, 2021)
Bharti Airtel
Airtel is an Indian MNC telecom service provider with service stretching to 18 countries,
providing 2G and 4G services. It is the second-largest mobile network operator in India and
the world, with a worldwide customer base standing at 471 million, of which 350 million
customers are from India, as reported till March 31, 2021 (Airtel, 2021). In Q4 of FY21, Airtel
witnessed the highest number (2,74,000) of customer addition. Furthermore, Airtel had
successfully strengthened its network by adding a 355.45 MHz spectrum in its bandwidth. In
2020, Airtel was named as the most valuable Indian telecom brand and the fourth most
valuable Indian brand by BrandZ Top 75 most valuable Indian brands (Best Media Info, 2020).
Recently Airtel launched a brand campaign highlighting the superior customer preference and
differentiated services for its network in comparison to its competitors (The Financial Express,
2021a). In his statement Bharti Airtel Chief Marketing Officer, Shashwat Sharma said.
We have one and only one guiding principle – customer obsession, and it is gratifying to see
customers reward Airtel for constantly listening to them and innovating to serve them even
better, especially at a time when the pandemic has redefined the normal. Today, Airtel has

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the highest number of active mobile subscribers in India, and more importantly, we believe
we are leading in the hearts of customer (Economic Times, 2021a)
Vodafone-Idea (VI)
VI is an Indian telecom service company providing 2G and 4G services with a consolidated
subscriber base of 269.8 million as reported till Q3 of FY21 (Vodafone-Idea, 2021a). It has the
third-largest mobile telecommunication network in India and the seventh-largest in the
world. VI was formed in August 2018 from the merger of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular. It
got its brand identity from the integration of the separate brands of Vodafone and Idea into
a unified brand in September 2020 (The Indian Express, 2020). Furthermore, VI became the
fastest Indian telecom after passing the speed test certified by Ookla, with a continued streak
for three consecutive quarters till March 2021.
Furthermore, VI became the first telecom operator of the country to provide Managed
Services for Enterprise customers, having superior features of high-end security, resilience,
flexibility and customization (Vodafone-Idea, 2021b). Enterprise customers from BPOs/KPOs,
IT/ITES, BFSI and the telemarketing sector, will get superior telecom services enhancing their
telecom infrastructure optimization and monitoring. The Chief Enterprise Business Officer of
VI Abhijit Kishore said.
With the introduction of VI Managed SIP service, VI is now in a position to be a single point
facilitator of comprehensive fixed telephony solutions that enable businesses to gain better
control of their overall voice infrastructure and the ability to garner meaningful insights on
voice performance for their clients/ internal stakeholders. I am confident that this significant
addition to our basket of best in class, holistic communications solutions for Enterprises, will
help our customer organizations transform the way they communicate with their customers.

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BSNL SWOT Analysis
Understanding the internal factors of the company will help you influence your ability to take
advantage of an opportunity. Let’s dive into it.
Strengths
 Backed by government
 Extensive infrastructure in remote areas
 PAN India reach
 Vast experience
 Strategic alliances with IT and hardware companies
 More than 65% market share in rural India market
 Excellent network coverage across India
 More than 90 million people are subscribed to BSNL
 Huge optical-fiber infrastructure
Weakness
 Decreasing market share
 Unable to retain customers
 Poor service image and innovation
 Unproductive rural assets
 Not able to optimize network capabilities
 Poor working culture of government institutions
 Limited brand visibility and low brand loyalty
Threats
 Massive and tough competition
 Government regulatory framework
 Mobile number portability
 Expensive network roll-out
 Low-income subscribers
 Lack of electricity in rural areas
Opportunities
 Privatization of BSNL
 Strategic partnership with smartphone companies
 Partnering with other telecoms
 Customer retention
 Improving upon intangible capabilities (skill, motivation, knowledge & ageing
workforce)
BSNL suffers from the noncompetitive of its business model. Backed by the government, the
organization tends to make socially driven business decisions rather than profit motive driven
solutions. According to our SWOT analysis, the organization needs to heavily restructure itself
and cut down its massive workforce and invest in better technology to keep up with the pace
of the competition.

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SUGGESTIONS
➢ From the research study, it has been found out that the Customers are very particular
about the Quality of the Telecom services and hence they want BSNL to increase the Quality
of BSNL services by providing the Customers with some Value-added services (Plans &
schemes).

➢ BSNL may also introduce some sales promotion such as cash discounts; Quality discounts
hence the promotional activities would further strengthen the market share of the Company.

➢ It seems that audio visual advertising especially new advertises of BSNL on television plays
an important role to come in focus in front of customers, while outdoor adds like on state
transport buses, banners while in case of print advertising in newspapers also shows good
response from customer. So, company can strengthen its presence by Focusing on such types
of advertisements.

➢ Basic strength for BSNL is Availability and trust of the customer on the same platform
company should make efforts to be in leadership position because Telecom sector today is
very competitive due to presence of strong players & entry of new players.

➢ Company can also promote performance of Franchisee’s by giving good profit margin on
sale of products & services which will be helpful to increase sale as distributor & retailers are
close to end customer &they are well aware of customer’s requirements & expectations.

➢ BSNL service in the respected area always seems to be successful in winning customers
trust by providing good service on the same platform company can grab more market by
providing some Value-added services, schemes, plans in rural areas. Because all the private
players are capturing market on the basis of Value-added services & affordability.

➢ BSNL SIM cards should be made available in retailer shop, because after study it found that
when customer want to purchase BSNL SIM then he/she have to approach BSNL exchange in
the area.

➢ Sometime customers have to wait for some days on application for service but private
players provide service on the same day of application, so efforts should be made to provide
service within a day. Because the extensive time lag between submission of application and
receiving of a telephone connection had made some respondents switch over to other service
providers.

➢ College going students and also some professionals switch to other services due to
attractive plans of private players. The attractive plans are like free calls & mobile internet
played an important role to grab market so BSNL should focus on such plans to attract the
customers.

➢ Today most of the customers are using mobile internet (GPRS/WAP/MMS). But BSNL is not
strong in such plans to attract the customers due to low internet speed & more charges

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compared to competitors so these plans should be made available at affordable rate & good
speed.

➢ When customer apply for BSNL broadband service then he/she have to wait for about 10-
15 days to get service so most of the customers especially needy customers do not prefer
BSNL broadband so efforts must be taken to provide service as soon as possible.

➢ Most of the customers are not aware of all type of plans & schemes so awareness is low
regarding the plans so BSNL should make the efforts to the larger extent to the customer.

➢ BSNL may reduce the monthly rentals of landline service.

➢ BSNL Should Implement New Technological development happening recent days like 5G
Technology to compete with the other private sector telecom giants.

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PESTLE analysis of the telecommunication industry.
Political factors
Regulation issues come up frequently. The government has one idea how telecoms should be
handled. The people have another.
Wi-Fi and internet are a daily part of life. Customers wish the government to acknowledge
the internet as a basic human right. It’s required for education and many careers. Even
applying to a job is an online experience; going to a company website and uploading a resume
on their servers is essential.

A battle for and against net neutrality is raging. Customers believe internet and data should
be treated the same by service providers and the government. Net neutrality would prevent,
for example, service providers from throttling internet and data speeds.
This is a big political fight between government, service providers, and the people.
Economic factors
Interest rates, inflation, and taxes affect the telecommunication industry. Expenses affect the
pricing per plan offered to customers too. It’s expensive to build towers and resources in rural
areas. Customers who don’t live in big cities are affected.
As more houses are built, the need for telecommunication resources increases. This can drive
prices (plus revenue) up depending on location, number of customers in an area, and the
need for telecommunication services.
Growth is dependent on the market (customers) and technological advancements. Businesses
are using the internet and mobile phones for marketing. They create social media pages,
advertisements on sites, and digital marketing campaigns to reach customers around the
world.
For this reasoning, jobs are opening up and increasing in the telecommunication industry.
Customer service representatives are hired to solve problems via website live chat.
Marketers, writers, and media managers handle online marketing and campaigns. Graphic
designers and programmers are necessary to create websites for computers and mobile
users.
The need for everything to be available and accessible 24/7 is growing rapidly.
Social factors
Telecommunications horizontal growth is limited. Specifically, it’s difficult (and expensive) to
expand in rural regions. Customers are left with less than a handful of options when it comes
to buying internet, mobile, and television packages.

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Because telecommunication corporations are monopolies, they’re in charge of both internet
and mobile carriers. Customers need these packages to communicate with friends, partake in
social media challenges, buy products online, find stable careers and more.
Telecommunication has become a vastly important aspect of the daily life of the average
person.
Technological factors
Both needs and requirements for telecom services are advancing. For example, telephone
companies install fiber wire in their builds over copper now. Phones are becoming more
compact, moving the telecom business into a primarily wireless business.
Basic needs in smartphones, like voicemail, caller ID, and messaging are covered. Now people
want internet access on the go. So, data is added to mobile plans. Wi-Fi has been built into
buses and cars too.
This ‘need’ leads to more investments in companies who hold a strong influence over telecom
developments in computers, smartphones, and laptops.
Legal factors
The telecommunication industry is often impacted by legislation issues. Particularly issues
with the government, monopolies, and customers. But the industry has allowed importing
and exporting of telecom products (international smartphones, for example). Allowing more
development in telecom tech devices.
Environment factors
Climate changes and global warming can affect how telecommunication products reach
customers. In terms of employment, with technology advancing, employees need to adapt to
changes.

Products come and go, often replaced by something ‘better’ (depending on who is asked,
customer or company). The previous version becomes redundant or unnecessary. Which
means people who worked on a previous version may now be unemployed.
Customers demand and telecom companies are expected to deliver. But with needs in the
telecom industry changing often, it’s not guaranteed which technology will stay, be advanced,
or discarded.

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Conclusion

BSNL is currently focused on improving its telecommunications network to reach a wider

audience, especially in rural areas that are not yet linked to urban areas. Major competitors
of BSNL are Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Reliance Jio, etc. BSNL stands out among these rivals as it
is the only service provider looking forward to or making efforts to bridge the gap between
rural-urban areas with the help of telecommunications and internet facilities.
BSNL being a public sector, in order to thrive and excel, have to understand about the
Customers expectations. They also have to understand about their competitors and their
nuances in understanding their customers. Since Communication industry is a very
competitive one it is high time for BSNL to understand about their Customers in Landline as
well as Mobile services
BSNL Should also consider to fasten the implementation of 5G technology to compete with
the other companies in the telecom sector and consider the same in all area, all time.

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